This invention is related to food handling, apparatus, and more particularly to an improved device for counting and stacking thin, flexible food items such as tortillas.
The state of the art in tortilla stackers is the stacker previously patented by Jose L. Longoria and Steven M. Kenison in U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,695 entitled xe2x80x9cTORTILLA COUNTER-STACKER.xe2x80x9d In that patent, a device is described with sequenced elevator lifts and stackers for making perfectly aligned stacks without manual tapping, ready for bagging.
The discussion of other prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,695 is incorporated herein by reference.
A drawback of prior stackers, including that of U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,695, is that the numbers of rows and the sizes of tortillas that can be accommodated by the machine are fixed, be it 2, 3 , 4 or more rows of a given diameter. While a fixed-row, fixed size stacker is desirable in some instances due to simplicity and cost of manufacture, there are many instances where it is desirable to have the flexibility to quickly change or convert between row configurations and/or sizes of tortillas. Moreover, it is important that any change over procedure be simple and fool-proof, without requiring advanced mechanical skills, in order that production line workers may make the change overs without special skills, tools or training.
This invention provides a tortilla stacker that is readily convertible between numbers of rows and sizes of tortillas, in an improved tortilla stacker where tortillas are evenly stacked and the stacks are transported to a bagging station substantially ready to be bagged. The present invention describes and claims novel elements such as a stacker and lift subassemblies that may be logically programmed for simultaneous operation in differing configurations of tortilla numbers and sizes, which are an improvement of the art making the invention more commercially viable.
The types of problems encountered in the prior art are inflexibility of tortilla configurations.
In the prior art, unsuccessful attempts to solve this problem were attempted namely: manually adjustable lift and stacker configurations. However, the problem was solved by the present invention because of the programmable stacker and lift subassemblies.
Innovations within the prior art are rapidly being exploited in the field of automated food preparation.
The present invention went contrary to the teaching of the art which teaches manual reconfiguration of the numbers of tortilla rows and tortilla sizes.
The present invention solved a long felt need for a fully automated tortilla counting and stacking apparatus.
The present invention produced unexpected results namely: the efficiency of tortilla packaging was greatly enhanced.
A synergistic effect was produced utilizing the present invention due to the following facts and results from experimentation: the cost of manufacture was reduced due to ready flexibility in configuration of the tortilla stacker.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tortilla stacker having stacker and lift subassemblies that may be logically programmed for simultaneous operation in differing configurations of numbers of tortilla rows and tortilla sizes.
The novel features which are considered characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiments when read and understood in connection with the accompanying drawings.